Currently, golf club heads are coupled to golf club shafts using a variety of mechanisms. Coupling mechanisms can vary for different types of club heads. For example, many putter type club heads are coupled to shafts by a bore in the club head or a hosel configured to receive the shaft. Further, many iron and wood type club heads (e.g. fairway woods, hybrids, and drivers) are coupled to shafts using a hosel and a coupling mechanism.
The impact force of a club head with a golf ball imparts high stresses on golf club coupling mechanisms, and in particular on coupling mechanisms of golf club heads designed for high swing speeds. Accordingly, coupling mechanisms are typically designed to withstand significant stresses. Many current coupling mechanisms designed to withstand high stresses have increased weight and/or suboptimal mass distribution characteristics, which can adversely affect club head performance. Further, current coupling mechanisms that are designed to maintain specific weight and mass distribution characteristics have reduced thresholds of stress and may fail at high impact speeds or after repeated use due to cyclic loading of the coupling mechanism. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a coupling mechanism having increased strength, while maintaining or reducing weight to achieve desired mass distribution characteristics such that specific performance characteristics of the golf club can be achieved.
Other aspects of the disclosure will become apparent by consideration of the detailed description and accompanying drawings.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. The same reference numerals in different figures denote the same elements.